"Internet PR is about as useful to making a living as a â€˜Boycott Israelâ€™ twibbon is to a West Bank school under mortar fire"

“What Prince has figured
out is that the proportion of effort/return on pushing the internet
user to actually BUY music is not worth the resources it takes to
do so. When 80 – 90% of your PR effort disappears into non-revenue
online areas (piracy, Spotify), the PR needs to be 8-9 times as
ubiquitous as in the pre-internet era to make the same gains. He’s
done the sums, and has figured out that even if he only stands to
make a penny profit on each CD that goes out on the cover of
various European newspapers, that it’s worth more to him than a
hundred million people retweeting a video clip of his track on
YouTube. Newspapers are an established physical distribution
platform, to make them the sole legal source of your music is a
mark of genius thinking. Why SHOULD Prince make his music available
to be listened to at will, for nothing (or as close as dammit) on
YouTube, Spotify or Mog.com? For YOUR convenience? So that you can
enjoy his work and display your musical credibility to your
dinnerparty guests without the painful business of compensating the
artist in question? Oh how RUDE of dear little Prince to deny you
the opportunity.”
-Here’s
one take on Prince declaring the Internet “over.”